Strongman, The

mood to listen. Instead, he hit back on American democracy, too. The American people did not elect their president, Putin asserted, but an electoral college did. Bush replied: ‘Vladimir, don’t say that publicly whatever you do. You will just show everyone you don’t understand our system at all.’
    Three months later there was a chance for reconciliation. Putin invited a host of world leaders to Moscow on 9 May to celebrate the 60th anniversary of the Allies’ victory over Nazi Germany. For the first time, an American president stood on the reviewing stand to observe a Soviet-style display of military might on Red Square. Putin appreciated the gesture (President Clinton had boycotted a similar parade ten years earlier in protest at the first Chechen war), but he did not like what went before or after it.
    On his way to Moscow Bush had stopped in Riga, the capital of Latvia, where he sided fully with the Baltic nation’s interpretation of post-war history – namely, that the liberating Soviet army had overstayed its welcome and become an occupation force, replacing Nazi rule with another totalitarian regime. Soviet oppression in Europe, said Bush, was ‘one of the greatest wrongs of history’. The fact that the Baltic nations perceived Soviet ‘liberation’ as occupation is a truth the Russian government finds very hard to stomach, because, it claims, it insults the memory of Soviet servicemen who fought to free the country from the Nazis.
    Even worse than his interpretation of the past was Bush’s gloss on the present. From Moscow he flew straight to Tbilisi, where the Georgians laid on a hero’s welcome and Bush reciprocated by calling the country a ‘beacon of liberty for this region and the world’ and apparently urging other former Soviet states to follow suit. He praised Georgia for providing troops in Afghanistan and Iraq, and proclaimed: ‘Your courage is inspiring democratic reformers and sending a message that echoes across the world – freedom will be the future of every nation and every people on earth.’ The words caused fury in the Kremlin, which was at that very moment tightening the screws on Georgia – banning imports of its world-famous wines and mineral waters on ‘health grounds’.
    As 2005 progressed, and the West watched powerless as Putin curtailed democracy, created Nashi, cracked down on NGOs and turned off gas supplies to Ukraine, the rhetoric on both sides peaked. In early May 2006 Vice-President Dick Cheney travelled to another former Soviet Baltic republic, Lithuania, with the express purpose of delivering another broadside at Russia – one that was intended to be seen not as a wayward attack by a sometimes off-message vice-president, but as the considered view of the administration. Damon Wilson, at the National Security Council in the White House, explained: ‘We knew that this would be an important opportunity to continue to echo the president’s messages about the freedom agenda. There was a tendency often in Moscow to discount what Vice-President Cheney said, to say, this is Vice-President Cheney, we all know he’s radical, he’s the neocon in the administration, but at the end of the day, we’re doing business with President Bush. And so we worked very closely with the vice-president’s office and his speech writers to make sure that this wasn’t Vice-President Cheney out on a limb. We prepared a speech that was actually well vetted, very much circulated in the Interagency, delivering key messages on the democracy front, pretty tough-hitting words on what was happening in Russia.’ 3
    Cheney delivered a paean to freedom and the spread of democracy, and let loose at the Putin regime:
    In many areas of civil society – from religion and the news media, to advocacy groups and political parties – the government has unfairly and improperly restricted the rights of her people. Other actions by the Russian government have been counterproductive, and could begin to affect relations with other countries. No legitimate interest is served when oil and gas become tools of intimidation or blackmail, either by supply manipulation or attempts to monopolise transportation. And no one can justify actions that undermine the territorial integrity of a neighbour, or interfere with democratic movements.
    He called on Russia to return to democratic reform, and become a ‘trusted friend’ by sharing the Western values: ‘We will make the case, clearly and confidently,